diff --git a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changelogentry.tmpl b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changelogentry.tmpl
--- a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changelogentry.tmpl
+++ b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changelogentry.tmpl
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@
 </div>
 <i>{author|obfuscate} [{date|rfc822date}] rev {rev}</i><br/>
 </div>
-<div class="log_body description">
-{desc|strip|escape|websub|addbreaks|nonempty}
-<br/>
-<br/>
+<div class="log_body description">{desc|strip|escape|websub|nonempty}
+
 </div>
diff --git a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changeset.tmpl b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changeset.tmpl
--- a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changeset.tmpl
+++ b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/changeset.tmpl
@@ -45,9 +45,7 @@
 {child%changesetchild}
 </table></div>
 
-<div class="page_body description">
-{desc|strip|escape|websub|addbreaks|nonempty}
-</div>
+<div class="page_body description">{desc|strip|escape|websub|nonempty}</div>
 <div class="list_head"></div>
 <div class="title_text">
 <table cellspacing="0">
diff --git a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/fileannotate.tmpl b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/fileannotate.tmpl
--- a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/fileannotate.tmpl
+++ b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/fileannotate.tmpl
@@ -61,9 +61,7 @@
 </table>
 </div>
 
-<div class="page_path description">
-{desc|strip|escape|websub|addbreaks|nonempty}
-</div>
+<div class="page_path description">{desc|strip|escape|websub|nonempty}</div>
 <div class="page_body">
 <table>
 <tbody class="sourcelines"
diff --git a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/filerevision.tmpl b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/filerevision.tmpl
--- a/mercurial/templates/gitweb/filerevision.tmpl
+++ b/mercurial/templates/gitweb/filerevision.tmpl
@@ -61,9 +61,7 @@
 </table>
 </div>
 
-<div class="page_path description">
-{desc|strip|escape|websub|addbreaks|nonempty}
-</div>
+<div class="page_path description">{desc|strip|escape|websub|nonempty}</div>
 
 <div class="page_body">
 <pre class="sourcelines stripes"
diff --git a/mercurial/templates/static/style-gitweb.css b/mercurial/templates/static/style-gitweb.css
--- a/mercurial/templates/static/style-gitweb.css
+++ b/mercurial/templates/static/style-gitweb.css
@@ -175,6 +175,7 @@
 
 .description {
     font-family: monospace;
+    white-space: pre;
 }
 
 /* Followlines */
diff --git a/tests/test-hgweb.t b/tests/test-hgweb.t
--- a/tests/test-hgweb.t
+++ b/tests/test-hgweb.t
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@
 
   $ get-with-headers.py --twice localhost:$HGPORT 'static/style-gitweb.css' - date etag server
   200 Script output follows
-  content-length: 8985
+  content-length: 9007
   content-type: text/css
   
   body { font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; border:solid #d9d8d1; border-width:1px; margin:10px; background: white; color: black; }
@@ -520,6 +520,7 @@
   
   .description {
       font-family: monospace;
+      white-space: pre;
   }
   
   /* Followlines */